Twenty years without a
break. From the time we're
five to the gods know when. Always the
pressure to
keep going or be
poor and useless.
High school sucks, and unlike our parents, we aren't even
done after high school; we have to spend those
torturous years
looking forward to more. Twenty years during which we can't
miss a day without permission; can't
eat without permission, can't
pee without permission. No
adult would keep a
job like that for twenty years straight, but we
expect our kids to do it. We aren't
that shocked when our
postal workers or
stock brokers snap under the stress, but man, we're horrified when
mere children can't handle it.
My
dad told me to
take a year off between high school and
college; and he told my
brother the same thing. Both of us did take a year off; then I did
two years of college and took some
more time off. My dad is
proud of me. Me, I'm giving my kids a
couple years off in there to just
travel, or
visit family, or something.
Could it be that
Columbine is just what happens when
partially developed humans are
subjected to
monstrous,
continuous stress for the entire first
quarter of their lives?